1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer systems and more specifically to user interfaces and search query definition that facilitate localization and display of search results in relation with an object. This invention also relates to technical document classification and more precisely to engineering and patent documents applied to a graphical representation of an object.
2. Description of the Related Art
Method for Building a Search Algorithm
Internet is a significant source of information. Browsing into such a mass of information remains difficult given search tools that are available. A search tool generally uses keywords to dig into Internet and find relevant Internet pages.
The relevant pages are found and ranked using various techniques depending on the search engine. Most techniques are using data and metadata found in an Internet page. The data is, mostly, the content, often text but not limited thereto, inside the Internet page. The metadata can be of different types, inter alia: registration pages, speed of play of the page, location of the page, HTML title, meta tags, keyword frequency, link popularity.
The tags in the source code usually occur in a particular sequence. If, for example, the Web page consists of a title, a heading, and two paragraphs of text, the tags would be of the sequence: (<html>, <head>, <title>, </title>, </head>, <body>, <h1>, </h1>, <p>, </p>, <p>, </p>, </body>, </html>). The sequence of tags in the source code has one or more sub-sequences, which are generally contiguous portions of the sequence. The sub-sequences can and usually have different lengths, which is the number of tags included in a sub-sequence. The above listed sequence has, for example, the sub-sequence (<title>) and the sub-sequence (<title>, </title>). As can be seen, a sub-sequence can have a length of one tag. The sub-sequences can start at different positions in the sequence. The above listed sequence has, for example, the sub-sequence (</h1>, <p>), which starts at the eighth position in the sequence, and the sub-sequence (<p>, </p>, <p>, </p>), which starts at the ninth position in the sequence. Sub-sequences can overlap with each other, i.e., share common tags. The above listed sequence has, for example, the sub-sequence (<title>, </title>, </head>, <body>, <h1>), and also the sub-sequence (</title>, </head>, <body>, <h1>, </h1>, <p>, </p>). The common tags here are </title>, </head>, <body>, and <h1>. Sequence and sub-sequences are denoted in the instant application by enclosing their elements in parentheticals.
Each sub-sequence of tags is associated with the particular portion of source code that starts and ends with the first tag and the last tag, respectively, of the sub-sequence. The particular portion of source code can define corresponding content of the Web page. The tag in a sub-sequence that includes only one tag is both the first and the last tag.
Each search engine uses its own unique formula, called search algorithm, to index, score and rank web sites. Search engines' algorithms weight various factor, such as a page's design and links, and various other keywords related criterions to rank pages in their search results.
The search engine suggests Internet page results based on the keywords from the user. This implies the user knows how is referred to what s/he is looking for; which is sometimes not exactly the case. It also happens that the search engine provides a list of results from which a few results are relevant to the searcher. Search techniques in the art do not allow the user to tell the search engine which documents are the most relevant such that the search algorithm be modified to focus on the relevant terms/metadata to provide more accurate search results. It could be desirable that a search engine suggests to the user to refine the search based on the most significant terms and/or metadata used in the algorithm. This way, the algorithm could be modified according to the user's input and cooperatively refined to narrow the query and therefore provides better search results.
The same problem can found in databases searches and other data deposits where searches and/or taxonomy is required.
Method for Linking Documents with an Object
Engineers and patent agents are generally using databases to collect and manage documents related to an object, a product or a method. These prior art databases are not drawing intuitive relationship between the document and the product/method. It is actually difficult for a user to make a link between a document and its precise relationship with the product or the method.
Document management systems and method available in the art to organize technical information and patent documents related to a product or a method fail to provide a simple and intuitive way to retrieve documents related to a specific aspect of an object, a product or a method and vice-versa.
Mostly, people that are not familiar with taxonomy or method for classifying documents will have a hard time finding the right documents based on their knowledge of the object, the product or the method.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved apparatus and an improve method to draw links between documents and an object.
Other deficiencies will become apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains in view of the following summary and detailed description with its appended figures.